Let’s see, what to blog about? I’m trying to be good about my diet and fitness again. I’m down two pounds, and I’m finally back at the gym. I actually just started back today after 2+ weeks of not going because of that nasty cold I caught right after the cruise. I’m sure though it helped with those 2 pounds, but I fortunately got off the ship weighing about the same as I got on. Amazing I know!

The snow is FINALLY starting to melt. I can now walk the dogs further than 10 feet from the house. Our driveway had been a giant sheet of ice all week. NOT fun, especially with two little dogs who think they are sled dogs pulling me their master. No mush, stop! I almost fell far too many times this week.

However as our current snow melts, it looks like we may be blessed with more this week. They are calling for a Nor’Eastern at the end of this week, and should it hit land and not go out to sea, we might be in big trouble. These are the storms which resulted in the 2 foot blizzards we had last winter. Who am I kidding, I still love the snow, so bring it on. The doggies love the snow too

If you haven’t checked out my Tumblr blog, it’s linked to the left in the side bar right under the Blogs header – which comes after the photo of moi. I’m having a lot of fun with it, but it’s mostly just photos I post from my phone. Still, I’m loving it. I’m also still trying to find a theme for it I like, so don’t be surprised if it changes style a lot.

I’m still on the fence about Twitter. I actually did get my first Twitter name back finally. I can integrate it both into the Tumblr blog as well as the side bar here like I used to. I just haven’t bit the bullet and jumped back in. I’m still trying to be good, not wanting it to take over my life again like it did

….. Okay so basically I had intended to write out all that has been going on and stressing me out, but it’s too much, it will come off as too whiny, and you don’t need to hear it all. Basically same shit different day . . . dissertation writing stress, living off saving stress, upcoming going back to work stress . . . add in the insane heat waves this summer which have just been migraine inducing as well as sitting around and gaining back way too much weight . . . yes I’m a barrel of laughs right now. There is also vacation stress, as whether we go on a vacation in January is yet again up to me. Part of me knows I’ll need a break come January (and I did have a great time last year), the other part of me knows I don’t want that on my credit card bill right now. I’ve been monitoring prices and right now they are going UP, so here is hoping they go back DOWN later on. Oh and then there is John having to work to 9-10pm every other night as well, so I never see him anymore.

So basically all this stress ends up leading to me breaking down and/or blowing up . . . and this last time I went and destroyed all my social networks. I deleted Twitter, Facebook as well as all the check-in apps like Gowalla and Foursquare too.

In part, I realized if I’m gunna be nuts online and vent on these places, I don’t need complete strangers knowing I’m nuts. Twitter/Facebook (because it’s easy to link them) are just too easy to go to and post a quick rant. The blog still takes time . . . signing in, writing the post, proofing it, etc . . . Twitter/Facebook it’s basically just bitch’n'go really. I decided 1) I don’t need to just be using these things as a bitch fest, cause nobody wants to read that and 2) I have way too many people on them I have no idea who they are, so they don’t need to know my private biz-nass.

So I just went on a deletion frenzy I guess I should have just deleted people off my lists . . . but somehow at the time I thought this was easier. I know people loved the twitter feed on the blog, but the problem is for it to work properly with the blog, your twitter account needs to be open. That means anyone can sign up and follow you, and unless you take the time to go in and block them . . . they know your biznass. Also for many people Twitter has seems to lost its appeal. The people I got on there to start following don’t use it as much anymore, and most of the updates I see anymore are people spamming 10 news article/links every hour.

As for Facebook . . . well before Twitter/iPhone I never really updated my facebook much. It was too much trouble. I also just approved anyone who asked to be my friend, even if I didn’t really know them, so now I have 300 friends and probably only can really identify who 50 of them are . . . 25 of which I’ve probably actually met in real life.

While my twitter (and 4square etc) accounts got irretrievably deleted, I did save Facebook from utter destruction. I just have too many childhood and obscure friends I’ll never be able to find again on there (though I’m an easy google if they need to find me, the benefit of years of the soap page). So at some point my Facebook will be back. However I’ve decided I need to take a hatchet to my Facebook. I need to go through my friends list and if I don’t recognize the name – - – DELETE! I also need to make lists of trusted friends and general friends, so I can decide who sees what. I need to learn to deny people’s friends requests if I don’t know who they are, and not be afraid to delete/block people – which so far I’ve never done to anyone. However if I’m posting sensitive and personal stuff, I don’t want strangers seeing it!

On the upside, my blog has gotten a lot more attention without Facebook and Twitter

PS Monster Mania this weekend! So I should be having some fun

Twitter and Facebook both permanently deleted tonight.

Not returning.

Fly away bird, fly fly away . . . it does not return . . . . *clap clap clap*

PS, who knew it actually was possibly to permanently delete your Facebook! It is!

*PS UPDATE* I am writing a longer post to address this one more in detail What is gone, what is saved, what needs to be changed big time before I can go back to it. However as usual, I’m multi tasking a million things right now, and a friend is coming over soon and we might be going out . . . some fun will do me good (especially since the last two times I tried to plan going out, they all fell through)

Speaking of issues, OY! I was designated driver last night so I didn’t drink, and as everyone else was having a good time drinking I was like “Hello, haven’t eaten since thismorning, I know you all don’t care about this right now, but I have hunger pains so lets go to dinner.” When we finally did, I inhaled my food. Then we got back to our posh suite (it really is, Keith hooked us up this year, I have to take photos), and everyone decided I needed to drink since I didn’t all night. Let’s just say we are feeling not good today! My guess is nobody else is either since they didn’t get up and go to the gym like they said they were this morning!

More updates to come, especially since the twitter digest doesn’t seem to function

As you can see from the side bar, I brought twitter back. I tried to follow as many people as I could find again. This is a new account though, my old one is dead as a doornail and not working. So if you wish, you can follow me at the new one through the side bar (click through to the twitter page and follow me there).

I registered for the dissertation boot camp, which begins next week. It’s going to be hell, but hell I need. I know I’ll be able to make a giant dent in my pile of stuff and be almost close to done when it ends.

I downloaded about 5 html editor/design programs for the mac and have to find the time to fiddle with them and see if I like any enough to fork the dough over for them. I’m coming up with ideas for how I want the farm’s site to look.

Oh, the farm is running a full page ad in a local paper soon. I’ll scan it and post it, as I helped with it A lot of the photos I took are going to be in it too! We’ll have to add this to my resume!

As part of their website I recently implemented Twitter to it, cause you know all local small businesses are using it nowadays. So yes I’m back on Twitter. I also keep getting comments here, on facebook and via email about how I’m missed on Twitter. Honestly I miss reading others on it too, I didn’t think I would as much as I do. So I’m probably starting up a new account soon. Actually I have one, I’ve only just used it for news stuff rather than personal use. That might change soon.

Anyway, back to cleaning my house, which is what I’m taking a break from to write this blog.

Well finally something in the system clicked and it let me restore my account. Well actually only kinda. Everything was there, but I was getting no updates from anyone I was following after the moment the restore happened. I eventually realized I would basically have to go in and unfollow and refollow everyone to get it working again.

Unfortunately this only half-ass worked as well. Some people it let me refollow, others it was just giving me errors and making the browser is thinking/spinning wheel sign in the lower corner.

Not only was that a problem, but my photo got messed up and after about 20 attempts to upload a new one (which failed) I just got pissed off and fed up. It seems the photo problem has been an ongoing issue on Twitter since sometime in April based on their “Known Issues” page.

I didn’t want a half-ass working Twitter account, it would just frustrate me. So I re-deleted it, this time for good. This time it also told me that the restore account feature was now down, so this delete would be permanent and for good. I said “Byedeybye Captain Walkah” and hit the delete button.

I figured I originally deleted it for a reason, clearly it needed to stay deleted and gone. That is what the universe was saying I think. I’m sure my 8 million daily rambles aren’t missed I do however realize one thing Twitter was very useful for, knowing when people updated their blogs. Most of my blogroll was on Twitter so I always knew when a new post went up.

Anyways, learn some lessons from this kiddos. First, don’t delete your Twitter account unless you really want to, because like the Pet Cemetery, it will come back as something evil and only part alive. Second, if you decide you don’t like your Twitter picture, replacing it might be a gamble and you might end up with a broken link that you and everyone on your list has to look at.

Twitter has been a spaz lately, and it seems clear their servers weren’t prepared for the influx of new users that came on. I know they publicly claimed awhile back that this was not Oprah’s fault for talking about Twitter, but we all know it is. It’s totally Oprah and Ashton’s fault

I might down the road get a new Twitter for the sole purpose of knowing when blogs are updating and letting people know when mine is updated. However my guess is sometime this summer something new will be out to replace Twitter, basically making Twitter a Myspace to the Facebook of whatever replaces it.

The SciFi channel had a marathon of “Land of the Lost” yesterday. I have the first season on DVD, but never got the 2nd or 3rd. We came into the thing somewhere in the 2nd season and I watched through the abomination that was the third season when the show went to hell thanks to the arrival of Uncle Jack. The marathon of course was for the new movie coming out, which I can’t decide on. I am not a huge fan of Will Ferrell’s humor, I like him in a few movies basically. His “Land of the Lost” will either be really good, or make the third season look like Emmy Award winning television

Twitter suddenly came back last night, yet it’s still broken. It’s not updated since it returned. I think I have to kick start it by putting a tweet out, I don’t know. Maybe Jesus is still speaking to me and telling me “No!” Otherwise I haven’t used facebook, except for a slip-up late one dark stormy night *Confirmed* I’m being positively permanently punished. Twitter only shows my updates or replies to me, but nothing from anyone I follow. Time to give up the Twat!

I still haven’t eaten meat yet either, though the Big Mac is now haunting me. I kid you not, I was at the gym yesterday and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” was on. I look up and the question is “Based on the famous jingle, what is not an ingredient in a Big Mac?”

Anyways, I have a few other things to share, but I’ll save it for another post. I still have to get my review of “EA Sports Active” up at sometime too.

My old Twitter account never got fixed, and I’m just accepting it probably won’t. Maybe God is telling me to stop Twittering for good I emailed Twitter support about the problems I’m having restoring it (ie it’s not working), but all I got was a bot form response saying “Based on your question, we think these known issue FAQs will be of help.” Um, no, they weren’t . . . and they made me read those before I could put in a help request. I replied back and emailed off a different support email. Maybe I’ll get a human answer one day soon.

I took an hour to go out to the Collingswood May Fair today. Basically live bands, rides for the kiddies, and a buttload of crafters and venders. Lots of people, lots of doggies, and the summer sun straight down on me. I just got back and am pooped!

I still haven’t eaten meat since last weekend, and I’ve eased up on the fish too. Carbs are gunna be a problem for me! I ended up getting some wraps to use in place of breads to see if that will help. So far the only temptation to eat meat has been a Big Mac box trashed by the side of the road that I kept passing while walking the dogs. Mmmm, Big Macs! I finally just picked it up and threw it away so I didn’t have to keep seeing it.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the hiking day, but sadly I’m not sure if I’ll make it. It will be almost an all day affair, leaving here around noon and probably not getting back till 6pm. I will have to see if I feel I can sacrifice the hours. I need to get 2 dissertation chapters done and fired off this weekend. They were supposed to be done by Monday, but I didn’t realize what shambles one of the chapters was in. I ended up rewriting it and adding a ton of new stuff. Now all I have to do is proof them.

Even if I get them done by tonight, I have other issues. Nikko it seems isn’t feeling too well, he’s having ass explosions I do not want to leave him home for six hours with no walks! It’s a holiday weekend, so the market is slamming busy, and John might not be able to get over to walk him enough. I also really want to clean the house really well, it’s long overdue, and might help with the ants

Anyways, that’s about all I have to say. I am going to have a review of “EA Sports Active” for the Wii up soon. I’m trying to get through a few days with it so I experience a good number of the excersises. The personal trainer option basically picks them out each day and they vary from day to day. I have to say, it’s been kicking my ass!

I was able to restore Facebook entirely. Twitter told me I could restore my account, but as of yet it hasn’t happened. I actually went on to re-register the account name to protect myself from any fucktards who decided to usurp my ID, but it seems they thought of that already. My ID was saved and it told me I could restore it. It just doesn’t seem to have happened yet However like Facebook, I won’t use it for at least a month. I am not putting it back on my iPhone, I am not installing it back onto my Mac either!